In this paper, we provide a theory for the operators composing concurrent processes. Open pNets (parameterised networks of synchronised automata) are new semantic objects that we propose for defining the semantics of composition operators. This paper defines the operational semantics of open pNets, using “open transitions” that include symbolic hypotheses on the behaviour of the pNets “holes”. We discuss when this semantics can be finite and how to compute it symbolically, and we illustrate this construction on a simple operator. This paper also defines a bisimulation equivalence between open pNets, and shows its decidability together with a congruence theorem.